AO-91 Amateur Radio Satellite Voice Beacon Captured!

AO-91 Amateur Radio Satellite Voice Beacon Captured!

Earlier I had posted about setting up my IC 2730 dual band VHF/UHF radio for working AO-91 FM LEO satellite. Today I was monitoring the pass of AO-91 at my region at 10 am local time. After some time a faint voice beacon announcement was heard on the VHF downlink. I started the audio recording and waited. After a few a minutes, when the satellite was just descending after its time of closest approach (TCA), the hissing sound of the open squelch on VHF side suddenly stopped and S meter showed about 6 segments of signal. Then came the YL recorded voice announcement: “Hi, this is RADFXSAT amateur radio satellite”.

What you just heard was a short recording of the pass using my mobile phone kept over the radio. I was using my Moxon dual band VHF/UHF Yagi kept at a fixed elevation of about 15 degrees and turned to the direction of maximum elevation azimuth of the pass. It was a good Western pass in my region of about 50 degrees maximum elevation, which usually goes well with my limited amateur radio satellite receiving setup.